Erosion of Dollar Hegemony: the Coming Craziness

Summary

Offered full subservience by the world, post-9/11, the US seems to have lost the moral argument to lead the world. Worse, it seems to want to pursue happiness based on its might and brute force.

The question is can it course-correct? A paradigm shift is needed, and the challenge is immense: it will have to agree to global citizenship.

Erosion of Trust

1999: NATO forces bombed Serbia into submission. The moral argument was valid: helping out the Kosovo population from the Serbian majority’s oppression. The means and consistency of approach were the opposite. The aims of the operation were to integrate this south-eastern part of Europe into a larger NATO economy.

Speedy victory, with Russian acquiescence, highlighted the mantra that ‘ends justifies the means’. However in the Age of Internet, NATO was caught short on its own ideals: of transparency, of collaboration, of seeking a peaceful world. The hegemony of American morality and its claim to Rule of Law began to diminish, at least in the eyes of developing world capitals.

2001: The tragedy in New York gave the US all the sympathy it needed to pursue its agenda across the world.

Due to its subsequent failures, a significant part of the world is still unsure as to the full details of this tragedy. Was it Saudi? Was it Iran? Are others involved?

The US courts seems to be oblivious of this principle: ‘the justice is seen to be done, irrespective of human diversity’.

2003: The Invasion of Iraq was a blatant act of deception, in front of world cameras. Having been given great powers to curtail terrorism, they failed in their moral duties, and kept the narrative of the terrorist alive.

The young generation began to search for other reasons to be proud Americans; the world looked the other way too. America was no moral authority anymore.

Erosion in Science

2008: The Great Financial Crisis would have broken the US, and the world.

But just like many ‘economic boom-busts’ before, the US political/economic elite managed to print money – and kick the can down the road. They were piggy-ridding on the backs of US scientific community whose achievements the world had faith in.

The world began to see the duplicitous behaviour of international economic institutions led by the US. And economics is not a perfect scientific discipline.

2010: The Arab Rising began, the Arab revolt against the unaccountable socialist despots who though the world did not change in 1989.

Adding fuel to the fire were two elements:

• Iranian Vilayatis, the ruling regime of Iran, that lives in existential fear to being toppled by the US.
• The other paranoid block is oil-rich Arabian Gulf monarchies, who lives in existential fear of a local revolution, instigated or inspired by Iran. Iran has the open state-policy of supporting revolutions that will topple Gulf monarchies or Israel.

The claimant to world hegemony, the US, could not channel this Arab Rising and youth energy into anything meaningful. The call of social scientific community was ignored, and pragmatic policies benefiting domestic politics were followed.

With no science, the culture of making quick money and rentier mentality has killed many, uprooted millions and squandered trillions of dollars. So much human misery.

2018: The Chinese have thrown their challenge – of using science to uplift it’s populations out of poverty. It has Russia on its side, and it is hoping to attract India as an equal partner. Will African and Latin Americans join them? What will Middle East do?

What can we all do, to rid the world of disease, poverty and war. The Dollar Hegemony and the Debt Economy is not working, new ideas are needed.

If science is not part of the equation, we are doomed.

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